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A calculator and TypeScript library for interval union arithmetic.

Technical Positioning
Solves the limitations of standard interval arithmetic, particularly division by intervals containing zero, by implementing arithmetic over disjoint unions of intervals. Provides a more useful and accurate computational model.
SaaS Insight & Market Implications
This project addresses a fundamental limitation in standard interval arithmetic, specifically the handling of division by zero-containing intervals, which often yields imprecise or useless results. By implementing arithmetic over disjoint unions of intervals, it provides a more precise and practically useful computational model. The focus on a dependency-free TypeScript library with IEEE 754 double precision floats and outward rounding emphasizes accuracy and reliability, critical for scientific computing, engineering, and financial modeling. This innovation could unlock new applications for interval arithmetic in fields requiring robust error bounds and uncertainty quantification, where traditional methods fall short, enhancing computational rigor.
Proprietary Technical Taxonomy
interval arithmetic disjoint sets of intervals division by intervals containing zero [-∞, +∞] union of two disjoint intervals closed arithmetic system non continuous function tan()

Raw Developer Origin & Technical Request

Source Icon Hacker News Apr 18, 2026
Show HN: I made a calculator that works over disjoint sets of intervals

I've been studying interval arithmetic for the past few weeks and it's a really interesting field because while there is a ton of super interesting research published over the past decades, it has never really gotten the recognition that it deserves, IMO.One reason for this is that standard interval arithmetic has really poor handling of division by intervals containing zero. If you compute 1 / [-1, 2] in regular interval arithmetic, you get either [-∞, +∞], or you have to say that the operation is undefined. Both solutions are virtually useless. The real answer of course is [-∞, -1] U [0.5, +∞]: i.e. a union of two disjoint intervals.This is useful because you can confidently exclude a non empty set of the real numbers ([-1, 0.5]) from the set of possible values that you can get by dividing 1 by a number between -1 and 2.But this definition of interval division yields a value that is not an interval. This is a problem if you want to define a closed arithmetic system, where you can build and evaluate arbitrary expression over interval values.(This behavior extends to any non continuous function like tan() for example, which is implemented in my project - not without difficulties!)Well the obvious solution is to define your arithmetic over disjoint unions of intervals. This is the subject of a 2017 paper called "Interval Unions" by by Schichl, H., Domes, F., Montanher, T. and Kofler, K..This open-source project I made implements interval union arithmetic in TypeScript in the form of a simple interactive calculator, so you can try it out for yourself! The underlying TypeScript library is dependency free and implements interval union arithmetic over IEEE 754 double precision floats (JS native number type) with outward rounding. This guarantees accuracy of interval results in the presence of rounding issue inherent to floating point.

Developer Debate & Comments

Eric_Xua • Apr 18, 2026
Really cool project—turning interval unions into a usable, polished calculator makes the math feel practical.
wvlia5 • Apr 18, 2026
Hey, what about this idea? redefine interval representation, such that [a, b] means the same if a
SkiFire13 • Apr 18, 2026
Expanding the logic to union of intervals looks cool, but what is the complexity of that? Since you introduce the the possibility of an operation on an interval producing two intervals I suspect executing N operations might have an exponential complexity, which unfortunately makes this unfeasible to use for some common intervals applciations like abstract interpretation, unless you start introducing approximations once you have enough intervals.
malcolmjuxt • Apr 18, 2026
I wish I had known about interval arithmetic when I first wrote tick, a time interval library in Clojure, which includes a. implementation of Allen's Interval Algebra. It also embraces the notion of sets of discrete intervals which are useful for practical work calculations, like determining the set of intervals of your vacations that are in a particular year (for HR calculations). I accidentally stumbled on benefits of these sets without knowing much beyond Allen's work.https://github.com/juxt/tickhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen's_interval_algebra
mike-the-mikado • Apr 18, 2026
I recently implemented something somewhat similar, but from the perspective of set membership.I therefore needed to include a complement operation, so that I could do full Boolean analysis of interval membership.Your intervals are all closed sets, consequently the complements are open intervals. I chose not to distinguish between open and closed intervals, since for my practical purposes whether the end points are members of the set is unimportant.Of course, with inexact arithmetic, the question of whether the set is open of closed probably not well-defined.
akst • Apr 18, 2026
Very cool! I don't entirely understand some of the operations, but for what I do understand its pretty neat.I wish in classes we were introduced to a notion of arithmetic on intervals as it comes up. Like in basic statistics with confidence intervals there's ±, as well as in the quadratic equation. It found some what dissatisfying we couldn't chain the resulting a series of operations and instead repeat the operations for the 2 seperate values of the ±. I get a teacher would rather not get hung up on this because they want to bring it back to the application generally, like solving a more complicated equation or hypothesis testing in basic stats. I just wish they hinted at the idea we can do arithmetic on these kinds of things more generally.I realise what you've got here is well beyond this, but seeing this was some level of validation that treating the interval as a piece of data with its own behaviour of certain operations does make some sense.
_Microft • Apr 18, 2026
Very nice, thanks for sharing! Maybe show which upper or lower values are included in the intervals? A notation I am familiar with uses outward facing brackets if the value is not included in the interval. That always applies to infinity.Applied to the cases here:]-∞, -1] U [0.5, +∞[The excluded interval in between becomes ]-1, 0.5[ then.That’s how min (and analogously max) works, right? min(A, B) = [lo(A,B), lo (hi(A), hi(B))].Edit: idea: copy a formula from the results section to the input field if the user clicks/taps on it.
memalign • Apr 18, 2026
You might be interested in this graphing calculator I made using interval arithmetic:https://memalign.github.io/m/formulagraph/index.htmlSome detail on how this works, including links to the relevant interval math code:https://memalign.github.io/p/formulagraph.html
iamwil • Apr 18, 2026
This is great. You might be interested in Matt Keeter's work on Implicit surfaces, and using interval math for its optimization:https://youtu.be/UxGxsGnbyJ4?si=Oo6Lmc4ACaSr5Dk6&t=1006
fouronnes3 • Apr 18, 2026
Author here. Outward rounding to combat precision issues is what interval arithmetic is most known for (try 0.1+0.2 with "full precision mode" enabled), but that's really a shame in my opinion. Outward rounding is cool, but the "inclusion property", as it's known in research papers, works at every scale! This is what enables things like: 50 * (10 + [-1, 1]) [450, 550] which is lovely, I think. Adding the union layer to it enables even cooler things, like the true inverse of the square function. Did you know it's not sqrt? Try 'sqinv(64)'.I made interval calculator actually mostly as a way to test my implementation of interval union arithmetic [0], which I needed for another project: a backwards updating spreadsheet [1][2].[0] https://github.com/victorpoughon/not-so-float[1] https://victorpoughon.github.io/bidicalc/[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46234734

Frequently Asked Questions

Market intelligence mapped to A calculator and TypeScript library for interval union arithmetic..

How is A calculator and TypeScript library for interval union arithmetic. positioned in the market?
Based on our AI analysis of the original developer request, its primary technical positioning is: Solves the limitations of standard interval arithmetic, particularly division by intervals containing zero, by implementing arithmetic over disjoint unions of intervals. Provides a more useful and accurate computational model.
Are engineers actively discussing A calculator and TypeScript library for interval union arithmetic.?
Yes, we have tracked 45 direct responses and active debates regarding this specific topic originating from Hacker News.
What architecture is tied to A calculator and TypeScript library for interval union arithmetic.?
Our proprietary extraction maps A calculator and TypeScript library for interval union arithmetic. to adjacent architectural concepts including interval arithmetic, disjoint sets of intervals, division by intervals containing zero, [-∞, +∞].
What open-source repositories focus on A calculator and TypeScript library for interval union arithmetic.?
Yes, open-source adoption is correlated. An active project titled 'viperrcrypto/Siftly' explores similar frameworks: Local Twitter/X bookmark organizer with AI categorization and mindmap visualization

Engagement Signals

233
Upvotes
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Cross-Market Term Frequency

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